1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cable handling apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The offshore seismic exploration industry uses cables, generally called streamers, which are towed in the sea behind a ship during seismic surveying of the earth below the sea. The streamer comprises a cable with a number of hydrophones along its length and, in the case of digital streamers, a number of canisters containing electronics for performing digitization, signal repeating, etc. The streamer has a protective jacket or sheath enclosing each cable section between consecutive pairs of canisters. The canisters have generally tubular rigid housings of greater diameter than the interconnecting cable sections.
Streamers are stored on winch drums on board ships. During deployment, the winch unwinds the streamer from the drum so that the streamer can be towed behind the ship. When a survey is complete, the streamer is wound directly onto the winch drum. Thus, the streamer is stored under large tension on the winch drum and the pressure on the inner layers increases as each additional layer is added. This can result in damage to the streamer. For instance, in the case of streamers with canisters, the canisters can damage the comparatively soft jacket of the cable sections.